‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ trailer brings up Khan?

So unless you were off on a beach somewhere (like me), you’ve probably watched the teaser trailer for Star Trek Into Darkness, but have you seen the Japanese version?

It runs slightly longer and has a definite reference to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan as Kirk (Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto) touch hands through glass as the villain (played by Benedict Cumberbatch) asks, ‘Is there anything you wouldn’t do for your family?’

You’ll remember Kirk and Spock did something similar in the earlier film before the latter died, so one has to ask: Is that intentional? Would they kill off Spock so soon? Not likely. Why give that away if it was going to happen?

As you already know, there has been a lot of talk over Cumberbatch’s character and whether he’s an alternate version of Khan Noonien Singh (who was originally played by Ricardo Montalban). The new trailer doesn’t answer that question. But Abrams was clearly open to the possibility when he discussed the film with MTV in 2009.

“Certain people are destined to cross paths and come together, and Khan is out there … even if he doesn’t have the same issues,” he said.

Khan or not, what we do know about Cumberbatch’s villain is that he is awfully mad at Starfleet.

“You think your world is safe,” he says in a voice oozing Bane-like anger. “It is an illusion, a comforting lie told to protect you. Enjoy these final moments of peace. For I have returned to have my vengeance.”

Other things, I noticed. For a space movie, much of the action seems to be taking place on land – and water. Kirk does a cliff jump into water, the Enterprise rises out of the ocean, there are volcanoes and lots of earthly explosions (San Fran’s gonna take a pounding in this one). But…where are the stars dude?

We’ll know more when the 9-minute prologue debuts alongside The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Dec. 14.

Star trek Into Darkness hits theatres May 17, 2013.

Check out the two trailers below and let us know what you think in the comments.

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4 comments

James | December 10, 2012 at 8:40 am

Cool trailers. Things go boom. What’s not to like? The lack of space stuff is a drag, but it won’t totally ruin it for me. Spock won’t die. In this current reboot, he lives to be old enough to do that time-travel bit in the last movie.

Greg | December 10, 2012 at 2:57 pm

Sigh… some people don’t understand time travel. Old spock came from the future of a different time line. Once he was back, that future no longer exists, and therefore he is fully capable of dying in this film..

Jorge | December 10, 2012 at 3:25 pm

@ Greg: You’re wrong. You need to brush up on the Novikov self-consistency principle.

The Novikov self-consistency principle, also known as the Novikov self-consistency conjecture, is a principle developed by Russian physicist Igor Dmitriyevich Novikov in the mid-1980s to solve the problem of paradoxes in time travel, which is theoretically permitted in certain solutions of general relativity (solutions containing what are known as closed timelike curves). Stated simply, the Novikov consistency principle asserts that if an event exists that would give rise to a paradox, or to any “change” to the past whatsoever, then the probability of that event is zero. In short, it says that it is impossible to create time paradoxes.

Or, they’d just refer to the fictional “Blinovitch Limitation Effect”, which basically says that you can’t cross your own timeline (i.e., go back and repeat your own past), never mind that plenty of Dr. Who episodes have featured exactly that.

Awh heck, screw all of that, does anyone really think that JJ Abrams is going to let real physics (or Dr. Who psuedo physics) get in the way of a good story?!?!?

I mean, after all, once you blow up Vulcan, well, you know, anything is possible.

(Yes, I hated that too).

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Bruce Kirkland has been a reporter with Sun Media for 31 years. He has worked the movies beat from 1980-2007, and still focuses on TIFF, Cannes, Oscars. Before taking a position at the Toronto Sun, he worked at the Ottawa Journal as entertainment editor and movie critic from 1979-80, and at Toronto Star as music critic and general-assignment news reporter from 1971-79.

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